Parents face charges after teen daughter’s death

CASTILE, N.Y. (WIVB) – A couple from Castile in Wyoming County are accused of causing their teenaged daughter’s death by not getting her proper medical care, and have been indicted for criminally negligent homicide.

Wyoming County Sheriff’s investigators say 15-year-old Marissa Ikeler died, as a direct result of her parents’ failure to obtain medication for her or seek a specialist’s care.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, Marissa Ikeler had a chronic medical condition that caused seizures.

On January 26, the teen had a seizure so severe that she lost consciousness and stopped breathing. She was taken first to Wyoming County Community Hospital, and later transferred to Women and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, where she died the next day.

But it wasn’t until months later, on May 2 that the Erie County Medical Examiner determined her cause of death as “homicide due to medical neglect.”

Thirty-five-year-old Jeremy and 38-year-old Astrid Ikeler were arrested on Wednesday, a day after an indictment charging them with criminally negligent homicide was signed.

Both were arraigned and are being held in the Wyoming County Jail on $5,000 bail. Their next court appearance is scheduled for October 23.

Sources tell News 4 a relative now has custody of the couple’s two younger daughters.